Slamming Shut America’s Door

A Syrian refugee in February on the border of Greece and Macedonia.CreditCreditPetros Giannakouris/Associated Press

Republicans in Congress have reacted to the Orlando, Fla., tragedy with a meanspirited and illogical proposal to ban all refugees to the United States indefinitely.

The impulse to slam the door shut on some of the world’s most vulnerable people is not new. In recent years, congressional Republicans have tried to limit the numbers of refugees coming into the country from conflict zones like Syria. Meanwhile, officials in states such as Indiana and Texas have tried to bar resettlement of Syrian refugees, although, so far, none have succeeded.

Donald Trump, the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, has given xenophobic sentiments a megaphone by endorsing a ban on all Muslims coming to this country, whether refugees or not, and building a wall to keep out Mexicans. Since Orlando, he declared his intention to “suspend immigration from areas of the world when there is a proven history of terrorism” against the United States and its allies. On Sunday, he called for racial profiling as a preventive tactic against terrorism.

The latest legislative proposal, by Representative Brian Babin, Republican of Texas, would place “an immediate moratorium on all refugee resettlement programs.” In a letter to other members of Congress, he said that in light of the attacks in Paris, San Bernardino and Orlando, “it is imperative that we do everything in our power to keep Americans safe and defend our national security.”

To people like Mr. Babin, facts seem to mean very little. Almost every terrorist attack in the United States since 9/11 as well as most of the attacks that were disrupted in advance, according to Daniel Benjamin, the former State Department counterterrorism coordinator, were committed by an American citizen or a green card holder who had been in the country for a decade or more, including Omar Mateen, the killer in Orlando, who was born in Queens. That means that the attackers were largely radicalized here and that halting the flow of refugees would have almost no effect.

Even without a refugee ban, the United States has allowed in a piteously small number of the more than four million refugees who have fled Syria since the war there began in 2011. Only 3,127 Syrian refugees have been settled here in the past five years. President Obama promised to take an additional 10,000 Syrians this year but so far only 1,300 have been admitted.

In total, some 800,000 refugees have come to America in the 15 years since 9/11; only five have been arrested on terrorism-related grounds and none have been charged with trying to commit an attack in the United States, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

Refugees are already screened more thoroughly than other foreign travelers to the United States. The process includes background checks by the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the F.B.I., as well as defense and intelligence services. This can take as long as 24 months for Syrians.

Even foreigners who have put their lives on the line for America are being mistreated. For five years, the United States has promised visas to thousands of Afghans who worked as interpreters and assistants for American military and diplomatic personnel during the war. These people and their families are now at risk in Afghanistan because they were allied with Washington. Yet when the Senate passed a 2017 defense bill last week, a bipartisan amendment that would have provided 4,000 additional visas for the Afghans was blocked.

Like other newcomers, those who arrive as refugees have been a source of dynamism and growth in this country. With the world facing the worst refugee crisis since World War II, barring refugees would inflict incalculable damage on America’s reputation as a nation that offers hope and shelter to the displaced and would do nothing to advance the fight against terrorism.